It's a measure of Kieran Marmion's importance to Connacht, and his consistency, that the 24-year-old scrumhalf reached a landmark 100th game for the province, within four seasons of making his debut, in last Saturday's win over Glasgow Warriors.
An injury crisis at scrumhalf at the start of the 2012-13 season saw Marmion, then still in the Connacht academy, make his debut in the seasonal opener against Cardiff Blues at the Sportsground. Such stories have been a feature of Connacht’s remarkable campaign this season. Many recent graduates or members of their academy – who previously would have been largely unknown outside the province – have broken into the senior team. But Marmion was a trailblazer.
Bottom side
A lot has changed since then. Connacht finished eighth in 2012-13, tenth the following year and seventh last season before only missing out on top spot over 22 games by dint of having won one game less than Leinster after also finishing on 73 points. Their tallies over the three previous seasons were 38, 35 and 50.
“When I came here, Connacht were bottom side in the table,” said Marmion of their last place finish in 2009-10. “They always talked about the ambition of where they wanted to go . .. I think there’s a different type of belief about the place at the moment. You can see out there on the pitch what it means to people. It’s great to be involved with.”
Securing the win which rounded off their regular season campaign to earn a home semi-final was a fitting way to mark his, and Tiernan O’Halloran’s, century.
“We set out before the game to get the home semi, we backed ourselves and that’s what we got,” said Marmion.
Connacht have won 13 of 14 competitive games at the Sportsground this season, only Ulster escaping with a win secured in the 78th minute.
“Our results show we’ve lost just one game at home all season, so obviously teams coming here, it’s not a great place for them to come. You could hear how loud the support was out there today, especially in a tight game like that, it really helps us round off the game.”
Pat Lam’s team go into the play-offs as the outsiders of the four, albeit at only 11/2, and with the task of beating the defending champions for a second time in a row after ending the Warriors’ nine-match winning run last Saturday.
“Well, we’ve proved we can beat them. We’ll take huge confidence from that. They’re the ones under pressure coming here, and we’ll go into that game fully believing we can win that game too,” said Marmion.
“We trained in the sun all week, but we knew it was going to be raining [Saturday], so we played the way we do in the rain all week, even though it was dry. It was great to round that game off and win it, there’s been a few games where we’ve let it slip.”
The Sportsground is assured of another 7,700-plus sell-out in this ground-breaking season, and the demand for tickets will be unlike anything Marmion or the other players will ever have known.
But they wouldn’t want it any other way.
“The last two games have been sold out and it makes such a difference . . . it’s just great to be able to play in front of such a large crowd.
“In tight games like this one against Glasgow, you can hear them and it lifts the lads when they’re tired to get off the line and keep pushing forward.”
